The Ballad of The Three Dragons
by PAIKEA APIRANA
Summary: At the beginning, they looked like a bad joke, but now that I'm telling their story all of them are legends: the Beautiful Blacksmith, the Brave Knight and the Iron-winged dragon. From the mud and the shit of a village they reached the sky of eternal glory. They defeated Smaug the Golden and conquered Erebor, driven by courage and united by love. This is their story.
1. Nikandro

Nikandro

His life in the Withered Heath was now a distant memory. All his travels around the Middle Earth filled his mind with gorgeous sights and memories of innumerable fights. Nikandro barely remembered the time he was just a young dragon, without any parent that cared for him, struggling every day to survive. The scarce food in the heat was contended by the strongest dragons and unfortunately, Nikandro was not one of them. As a cub, he was undersize and rachitic since he survived gnawing the bones and the offal of other dragons. They were often surprised to see he was still alive.

One day, he decided to run away from the Withered Heath, searching for a place where he could eat something more substantial and he never came back. Over the mountains, Nikandro reached the Iron Hills. He had never seen so much trees, a forest that covered the mountains for ten thousand miles, green as his own scales. Everything was wrapped in a lordly silence. Not even the wind dared to disturb it, swishing through the motionless trees. When he arrived, there were only few dwarves, so the wood was a perfect place for a young horse-size dragon to grow. Soon Nikandro gained weight and muscles, hunting ever bigger preys. He slept during the day, flying protected by the cloak of the night.

He didn't suffered the solitude, all the dragons he met in the Withered Heath were always mean or even evil with him. The only law in that desolated land was survive and he considered himself lucky, since no one had ever tried to eat him. During those years in the Iron Hills, Nikandro couldn't complain about his new life: he had his own territory, all the food he wanted and the only thing he had never found in the heat: peace. The young dragon loved listening the gurgling of the river, the singing of birds, and the clattering of the woodpecker, while he was sleeping on a rock after a hearty meal.

When the number of dwarves in the Iron Hills, increased and they started to cut down trees in order to expand their cities, Nikandro decided to move away. At that time, he was already a fully grown fire-drake, with the strength of thousand dwarves, capable of breathing giant clouds of fire that could have destroyed all of those anthills, which dwarves called home. Yet, the young dragon preferred to leave, thinking that mortals weren't just worthy of his time. Furthermore, he had the chance to explore the rest of the Middle Earth. Nikandro was quite sure that everything would be better than the Withered Heath.

Years passed while he wandered around all the known lands. Day by day, the desire to explore and always see new places, grew inside him. Travelling, became the things that Nikandro loved most. The green dragon loved flying all the day, until wings started to ache, while the landscape changed at every wingbeat. He loved the sensation of being the undisputed lord of the sky, the embodiment of freedom and power. The wind guided him from north to south, from east to west, where he saw the sea for the first time. The memory of that endless expanse of water whitening of foam, was one of the most beautiful he had.

Unfortunately, together with the beauty of the Middle Earth, the young dragon soon came to know also the dangers and the monsters he should beware of.

During a stop in the region of Enedwaith, a Black Arrow almost speared his chest. That day, Nikandro killed a group of humans for the first time, but it wasn't going to be the last. Many dragon hunters became attracted by the challenge of killing him: the Emerald Demon, as they started to call Nikandro.

Most of them died burned by his fire or ripped apart by his claws and teeth, but the young dragon never attacked a village or a city. Yet, elves, dwarves, humans, and sometimes orcs hunted him across all the Middle Earth.

Resigned to the fact that the coast was too crowded of mortals, as well as the wood behind the Misty Mountains, the Emerald Demon flew again towards east, until the small sea of Rhun. However, soon Nikandro became bored of this forced exile, despite he had finally found a place without any mortal with his damned Black Arrows.

The option of leaving forever the Middle Earth and explore the unknown lands of the extreme east became very tempting, but then the young dragon remembered that there was still a place he wanted to see: Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, ancient kingdom of dwarves.

According to the stories he had heard in his travels, another dragon, Smaug the Golden, had conquered the kingdom under the mountain and had took possession of the immense treasure that it hid in its halls. The seeds of curiosity grew inside Nikandro more and more. He desperately wanted to see if Erebor's treasure was big as the minstrels said in their songs. Although the desire of gold was natural for dragons, the green dragon never cared much of it, since nobody had ever taught him why it was so important for his kind. In his life, he asked nothing but peace and something that could satisfy his thirst of curiosity, like the treasure in that moment.

Therefore, Nikandro decided to undertake his last journey in the Middle Earth, flying to the Lonely Mountain. He was not worried about Smaug, one of the most powerful dragons of all Arda, thinking that, since no one had seen him for sixty years, he was probably dead.

He couldn't be more wrong, but after this adventure Nikandro wont ever be the same.


	2. Leyazara

Leyazara

The Middle Earth was nothing like the Diragonistan. Everything seemed so powerful and mighty: the mountains with their sharp and dark rocks, standing fierce above the clouds, the turbulent streams that ran down to the valleys with the violence of a herd of oliphants, the ginormous trees that cloaked hills and lowlands…

Leyazara had to admit that she was quite intrigued by that savage and hostile world, so different from the land she came from.

Until that moment, the most difficult part of her journey had been crossing the Holy Mountain Chain. She had almost lost the use of her wings, because of the ice and the snow that had covered them. It was always winter on the top of those mounts and her coloured feathers couldn't do anything against the cold, since they covered only her backbone from the head to the tail. However, Leyazara never stopped; she kept flying even if all of her body was trembling without any control.

No one of her kind ever tried to go beyond those mountains. According to the stories, there was nothing on the other side but desolation, desert and death, but now Leyazara was seeing with her own eyes how wrong they were. Itching to explore those unknown lands, the dragoness kept flying for entire days, and sometimes even for entire nights. Until that moment, she hadn't seen neither other dragons nor humans yet. The thought that she had just discovered a new land excited Leyazara more than everything.

Probably in the Diragonistan, all the dragons believed that she was dead, telling to their younglings that Leyazara had dared the Valars and They punished her behaviour.  
"Don't get too close to The Holy Mountains or you will end like Leyazara!" they would say.  
The dragoness chuckled to herself, imagining the faces of all of them when she would come back alive and with thousand stories to tell. She would be remembered as the dragoness that reached the opposite coast of the continent, the brave explorer that crossed the line imposed by Valars and returned.

At the end of the twentieth day since Leyazara had crossed the mountains, she reached a river, so wide that it look like a lake or a sea. The dragoness could barely see the other shore. The surface was rippling gently, following the flux of the current, which was powerful enough to drawn an incautious dragon. A deep dark blue, just like the scales of Leyazara, coloured the water. She wondered if even in this unknown land there were enormous waterfalls like in the Diragonistan.

The dragoness drank avidly from the river, tired and thirsted after the long journey she did that day. The water was refreshing and cool. While she started to wet the peacock-like feathers on her head, sighing relaxed and thinking that it would be a perfect place to sleep during the night, Leyazara smelled a scent. It was new but familiar at the same time. It smelled like cinder and sulphur, mingled with masculine pheromones. After a few instant, she had no doubt that it was the scent of a dragon, even if it seemed so different from the one of dragons like her.  
The track was less than a week old, so the dragon could have been just a few miles away.

Leyazara felt a thrill, as she became aware of the fact that she had just discovered a new dragon specie. Innumerable questions stared to crowd together in her mind: how did these dragons look? Were they similar to her? Did they live in nests or were they lone? Why did they smell like a volcano?  
A few instant later, the dragoness was following the smell towards north. Her curiosity was stronger than the fear of finding an enemy. However, Leyazara checked the spine on her tail, making sure it was sharp enough. She opened her fan-like feathers on her tail, revealing the secret weapon of her specie. It looked like a human blade but it was as long as an adult man and it could kill a dragon, perforating the armour made up by his scales.

Her spine in that moment was perfect. The dragoness would be ready to fight if this dragon that she was chasing became a threat.

With a new energy, Leyaraza soared again in the sky, flying towards the source of the river. She followed the river for many miles. Probably the dragon wanted to stay close to water so that he could find easily something to eat. In fact, the third day since the pursuit was begun she found the bones of a bear right on the shore. The smell of the dragon was stronger on them; the track was just a few days old.

Afraid of losing too much time, the dragoness barely hunt during this chase and she slept just a couple of hours a day. She didn't want to lose the track, and with it the chance to see a new kind of dragon. The smell of sulphur and cinder was everyday stronger, just like Leyaszara was getting closer to a volcano.  
On the horizon, a solitary mountain was standing high above the forests and the river. It seemed that the dragon was going exactly to that ginormous peak.

After seven days, the dragoness was less than a mile away from the dragon. The stomach reminded her that she wouldn't be able to fight without energy, so Leyazara stopped an entire afternoon to hunt a big boar. The taste of the meat seemed even better after many days without food. Curiosity made her forget that her body was weakening.  
Then, she controlled one last time that the spine on her tail was ready and after she honed it a little bit, the dragoness was ready to meet the dragon.

The scent guided her to a smaller branch of the river that flew in a wood. Trees where so high that they could perfectly allow a dragon walk underneath them. The air was pleasantly cool, despite it was summer, thanks to the big leaves that filtered sunbeams. Leyazara heard the sound of a waterfall and, in fact, she founded one after a few minutes, but the smell of the dragon was disappeared. She sighed frustrated. Probably the water concealed the scent she followed for a week. But…but it had to be somewhere nearby!

She heard a low and guttural hiss coming from the inferior level of the waterfall. She stopped, listening carefully and opening her fan-like tail. Was it the dragon? Did he smelled her?  
The dragoness waited, fearing that the dragon would attack her at any moment, but nothing happened. She was hearing only the thud of water.  
Cautiously, she reached the edge with stealthy steps. Looking down, she finally saw the creature she chased for days, while he was drinking at the river.

The first thing Leyazara noticed was that he didn't have any feathers on him. He seemed bigger than her, with the muscular boy fully covered of green scales, which were darker near his backbone and lighter in the inferior part. Just like Leyazara, the wings of the dragon were fused together with his front paws, looking like a couple of enormous furled sails. The lineaments of his snout were sharp and marked, as though they had been sculpted in the stone.

Within a few moments, curiosity took the place of fear. Finally the dragoness had the chance to talk to a dragon of a different specie, but what if he would become aggressive? Yet, the desire of talking to him was stronger every instant that passed. She also wanted to ask him why did he smelled like a volcano.

Leyazara had always been a good fighter and a brave traveller, but when her greatest defect showed up, the curiosity, she couldn't help acting like a cub. For example in that moment, her tail was moving quickly because of the excitement.

Suddenly, the dragon stopped drinking and looked directly in her direction. His eyes, as yellow as the purest of the topaz and with a vertical pupil, enchained the ones of Leyazara, as green as her feathers. He _saw_ her.

**Author's note: Hey guys! How are you? Did you like the new chapter? What do you think about it?  
If you have seen some mistake, please tell me and don't be shy. I'm here to practise my English, so your help would be appreciated.  
Then I've a few thing to say regarding the story:  
1) Diragonistan means "The land of dragons" in Aramaic. It comes from "Diragoni" that means "dragon" and "-stan", which means "Land".  
2) This story is inspired by DONOVA94's fiction "Dragon-bound", but I guarantee that the story would be very different, although situations may be similar. Soon you will realize that Leyazara is nothing like Saphira and there will be a lot of new characters.  
3) I think that in the fourth chapter we will see Smaug for the first time. What do you think will happen?  
Stay tuned and pleas leave me a comment if you like the story.  
**


	3. The meeting

The meeting

Nikandro

At first, he thought to be dreaming. He had never seen a dragon like that one on the top of the waterfall. Because of the water, Nikandro couldn't smell the scent of the unexpected visitor, but, judging from the thin and graceful body, he supposed it was a female. It seemed that she was studying him with his same curiosity, staring at him without even blink her emerald eyes.

Her spine was covered by a crest of green feathers, which had more or less the same length of Nikandro's fingers, with a blue spot at the end. Her snout was sleek and tapering, just like it had been smoothed by the waves of the sea, which gave to the dragoness their hypnotical deep blue. The soft sunbeams, seeping though leaves, made her sapphire scales spark and their reflection was almost dazzling.

Since she was not showing any aggressive behaviour, the young dragon tried to make a step towards her. Suddenly, the dragoness growled softly and raised a bit her colourful feathers, warning him. Nikandro stopped immediately and in that moment he realized that he had no idea of how to behave with another dragon which was not a rival. He had done nothing but fight with the few dragons he had met after having left the Withered Heat; a fight to survive another day or to gain a territory rich of preys.

However, Nikandro didn't want to fight the mysterious dragoness, first of all because he had no valid reason and then because he was too curious of her. Her feathers proved that she was of a different kind of dragon, but where did she came from? How did she reached the Middle Earth?

Trying to be polite and make her understand he was not a threat, the young dragon emitted a low rumble from his throat. Cautiously, the dragoness abandoned her defensive bearing, looking at him from the top of the waterfall as she was silently asking: can I come down?

«Hum… All hail…» was the first thing Nikandro said. He often considered himself the exact opposite of a talkative dragon. Spending the most of his life alone, the young dragon had learned to appreciate the silence and even with the other dragons he had met, Nikandro didn't exchanged more than a few words.

«…All hail» answered the dragoness to his greeting. A little smile was blossoming on her snout and after a little moment of excitation she came down within a few beats of her wings, landing right in front of him. The young dragon noticed that she had a big tuft of feathers at the end of her tail. He had to admit that this bird-like dragoness seemed interesting.

The silence lasted many instants, while the two dragons studied each other with the curiosity typical of younglings. They were both moving circumspectly, but fear was slowly flowing away like the water of the river, while, one step after the other, Nikandro and the mysterious dragoness get closer to each other. Now, he could smell her scent: its exotic taste tickled his nose, it seemed some kind of fruit that the young dragon never smelled before, or rather…it was a mixing of many fragrances and aromas.

Probably, Nikandro was not exactly following the customs of dragons regarding introducing himself to a female, but she seemed not to mind. In fact, the dragoness was too focused on studying his body, looking for some feathers. The young dragon let her come closer, so that he could better see the crest on her spine. He smelled her feathers, tickling the scales of the dragoness. She growled again, warning him for the second time, but she was not showing her teeth, which was a good sign. He rumbled again to calm her down, keeping smelling her scent and looking at her feathers, almost hypnotized.

For her part, the dragoness was showing a great interest for his chest. She smelled it almost furiously, like she was looking for something. Did she want to see him breath fire?  
Surprised by such behaviour and a little bit embarrassed, since he had never been so close to a dragoness, Nikandro started to warm up. A spark ignited a flame in his chest, which started to shine. The dragoness drew back in scare, rising again her feathers in an attempt to look bigger. The young dragon immediately stopped.

«W…What was that? How can you do that…thing? » she asked.  
«What do you mean?».  
«Your chest was shining…! Like…like you had fire inside!» the dragoness yelled.  
Nikandro was staring at her as if a second head had appeared from her neck. «I'm supposed to breathe fire. I mean…I'm a dragon» he said. Then he realized that probably the mysterious dragoness belonged to a kind of dragon which didn't have such ability.  
«So that's why you smell like a volcano» she murmured. Slowly, the dragoness calmed down, smiling at him. «By the way, my name is Leyazara» she said.

Leyazara… Even her name had an exotic taste. Its sound was sweet and gentle at the beginning and then rough and harsh as a wind blast.  
«I'm Nikandro. It's a pleasure to meet you. You're not of the Middle Earth, aren't you?» he asked politely. It was actually the first peaceful conversation he ever had with another dragon and Nikandro liked it.  
«No, I'm not» she answered «I come from the Diragonistan, in the extreme East, behind the Holy Mountain Chain».  
«Diragonistan? I had never heard about this land. It must be much far away… You've flown for a big distance, am I right?».

Looking at the body of Leyazara, Nikandro noticed that it wasn't just thin, but so skinny that he could see her ribs under the scales. Probably the dragoness couldn't find enough food during the journey from the Diragonistan to the Middle Earth or maybe she was not used to hunt the animals of his lands.

«Yes, you are, but it's worth it. I'd never thought that there would exist dragons capable of breathing fire!» said Leyazara, showing him a big bright draconic smile. Her childish excitement made Nikandro smile back.  
«And you? Do you have some particular skill?» he asked, with a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes. Any other dragon would never be so friendly to a stranger or to an intruder in his territory, but the green dragon had always lived without caring of the customs of his kind, since he had no parents to learn from.

Leyazara took a few moments to answer, like she was thinking about what to say him.  
«No» she said then «Unfortunately, my kind has no special ability like breathing fire».  
Nikandro was quite sceptical about it. If dragons like Leyazara didn't have any natural weapon they couldn't be defined dragons. They would have been merely big and colourful lizards. A dragon worthy of his name is the embodiment of the forces of Nature, while, according to the dragoness, her kind had just big teeth and claws. No, probably Leyazara had some secret ability, but why was she refusing to tell him about it?

«So… You dragons of the Diragonistan are big lizards dressed like birds» said Nikandro trying to tease the dragoness.  
Leyazara narrowed her emerald eyes, making a step towards him. Instinctively, the green dragon took a defensive stance, preparing for a battle. The dragoness looked at him straight into his golden eyes, like she was ready to fight as well. Another step. Their snouts were now so close that Nikandro could feel her breath on his scales.  
«We are as beautiful as strong and deadly. You'd better not to underestimate me, _Nikandro_» she whispered, smiling such as she was making him a compliment. Her tail oscillated slowly. The young dragon couldn't stop watching it, and in particular the tuft of feathers at the end. It seemed that the blue spots were pulsing at the rhythm of his heartbeat. He started to feel tired like he was going to sleep from one moment to the other. How could that be? What was Leyazara doing?  
Nikandro tried to close his eyes, but even in his mind the young dragon continued to see her tail and the blue spots pulsing. His head began to ache. What kind of magic was that? Was this the ability of Leyazara?

When the dragoness stopped moving her tail, the ache ceased as well. The dragon looked at her, stupefied. He has just been hypnotized! Of course dragons were often considered the real source of magic, but he had never found anyone capable of using it in that way. What else could Leyazara do?

«All right, you've win» he said, while the dragoness smiled pleased «Now, tell me, why did you left your homeland?»

«Curiosity» she answered «I wanted to explore the world beyond the Holy Mountains, hoping to reach the west coast. All the dragons of my nest thought that I was mad, that I would probably die because of my foolishness, but now I can prove how wrong they were».

«I'm afraid that you wont reach the west coast alive».  
Nikandro started to tell Leyazara about the dragon hunters, orcs, elves, dwarves and humans that infested almost all the Middle Earth, and about their Black Arrows, capable of killing a fully grown dragon. The dragoness looked surprised, like she had never seen a dragon hunter during her entire life. She had spoken about her nest… So in the Diragonistan, dragons lived together in groups. Only a fool would have dared to attack an entire flock of dragons. Nikandro wondered how would have been living in a nest, but then thinking back at his life in the Withered Heath, the green dragon believed that he wasn't fit for it. Eventually, even if dragons live together, everyone is alone in his own struggle to survive, even the younglings sometimes. He had learned many years ago that being a loner dragon was better than live surrounded by his counterparts…

Nikandro shook his head, crowded by memories. Those days were over now, he was an adult now!

«What about you? Why do you still live here?» asked Leyazara at the end of his tale.  
«Actually, I was going to leave the Middle Earth and explore eastern territories, but first I wanted to see the great treasure of Erebor» answered Nikandro indicating the peak of the solitary mountain. The dragoness stared at it with curiosity, silently asking Nikandro to tell her more.  
«That mountain was the greatest kingdom of dwarves. According to the stories they had collected more gold and gems than you could ever imagine, enough to fill the small sea of Rhun».  
«Sounds interesting. But you've said that dwarves are dangerous for dragons»  
«Yes, they are. But there are no dwarves left in the kingdom of Erebor. More than sixty years ago, a dragon, Smaug the Golden, has chased them away. But I'm quite sure that he's dead now: none has seen him for decades» said the green dragon. He liked talking with Leyazara, and he was secretly itching for making her thousand of questions about her specie and her homeland.

The dragoness stared at Erebor, thoughtful, as if she was taking an important decision. Then, with a glimmer of hope in her eyes, Leyazara asked: «Would you mind if I come with you?».  
Nikandro's astonished expression made the dragoness chuckle. «Why do you look so surprised? I want to go and see this ginormous treasure under the mountain just like you so… Why don't we go together?» she said.  
Despite the curiosity the green dragon harboured for the dragoness, he didn't want to break his habit of traveling alone and enjoy his beloved peace and tranquillity. On the other hand, in that way he would have more time to spend with Leyazara and to better understand her mysterious hypnotic ability.

«Maybe we could make a deal» she suggested, interrupting his thoughts «If you let me come with you to Erebor, I'll show you the way to the Diragonistan. In my homeland there are no dragon hunters nor Black Arrows; it will be perfect for you».  
Nikandro took a few other minutes to think, while Leyazara's tail was moving frantically, betraying her impatience. Probably, just like him, she didn't want to loose the opportunity to know more about another dragon kind.  
«All right, we have a deal» he answered and the dragoness made a call of joy, which sounded almost like the singing of a bird. It seemed that the last journey of Nikandro in the Middle Earth would be more interesting than he thought.

**Authors note: Hey guys, how are you? Sorry for the long wait but I had a lot of appointments this week. I hope you have enjoyed the chapter. Did you like Nikandro and Leyazara?  
I know that for now, understanding their psychological insight could be difficult but I promise that I will deepen it. If you find some grammar mistakes please tell me. I've got some difficulties in writing descriptions of characters and landscapes; can you please give me some suggestion?  
What do you think that is going to happen when Smaug will appear?  
Stay tuned for the next chapter!  
**


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